POSTCARDS WITH WILD FLOWERS (1975) – drama film online

Directed by: Andrei Blaier
Script: Andrei Blaier
Cast: Draga Olteanu Matei, Eliza Petrăchescu, Carmen Galin, Elena Albu, Dan Nuțu, Gheorghe Dinică, Ana Ciclovan, George Mihăiță, Paul Ioachim, Constantin Florescu, Dumitru Chesa, George Negoescu, Marcel Gingulescu, Gheorghe Tomescu, Jana Gorea, Petre Gheorghiu-Goe, Traian Petruț, Haralambie Polizu, Traian Danceanu, Eugen Mandric, Astra Dan, Petre Vasilescu, Dumitru Onofrei
Producer: Sidonia Caracas
Cinematography by: Dinu Tănase
Edited by: Maria Neagu
Sound: Nicolae Ciolca
Music: Radu Șerban
Year: 1975
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 90 minutes

2 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

Laura (Carmen Galin) arrives from a small town on the Danube to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. She turns to Irina (Elena Albu) and her mother (Eliza Petrăchescu) for an induced abortion, which results in her death. Overcome by guilt that was not her own, Irina commits suicide.

AWARDS:

• 1975 – ACIN – Image Award (Dinu Tanase)
• 1975 – ACIN – Director Award (Andrei Blaier)
• 1975 – ACIN – Award for Best Actress (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• 1975 – ACIN – Award for male performance (Gheorghe Dinică)
• 1975 – ACIN – Costume Design Award (Ileana Oroveanu)

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“With “Postcards with Wild Flowers” (February 1975), the director earns his fame as a “filmmaker of current events”, the movie having an additional significance in Andrei Blaier’s creation, being his first auteur film. The director also changes his angle of vision in his exploration of reality, approaching everyday events with a greater social impact, showing a strong sense of civic, citizen’s sense. The tragic life experience of the young heroine (discreetly played by Carmen Galin) is the result of anachronistic practices and mentalities, the reflection of an attitude of contempt and defiance towards moral values. In spite of its poetic title, Andrei Blaier’s film is an “insect” in which harmful types and tics are fixed, to which classy actors such as Draga Olteanu Matei, Eliza Petrăchescu and Gheorghe Dinică give a terrible, frightening authenticity, because they end up being mistaken for real characters from our everyday slums. In this heinous world, the pure, delicate character, drawn with sincerity and grace by Elena Albu, seems unreal. The cinematographer Dinu Tănase, the other collaborators of the film crew – the composer Radu Șerban, the set designer Vasile Rotaru, the costume designer Ileana Oroveanu -, other actors in the cast (Dan Nuțu, Ana Ciclovan, George Mihăiță, Paul Ioachim, Constantin Florescu) contribute, each in their own way, together with Andrei Blaier, to the success of a movie with precious realistic and clearly satirical purposes.” – Călin Căliman, “History of Romanian Film”, 3rd edition, 2017

“Blaier surprises in 1975 with his life’s masterpiece, “Postcards with Wild Flowers”. As usual, he rushes to fulfill an official political commission. But the imposed conjuncture in the communist birth control strategy is mysteriously transformed into a simple, dramatically simple story of two lives brutally and stupidly shattered, early on, by a clandestine abortion.” – Tudor Caranfil, “Subjective Dictionary of Romanian Filmmakers”, 2013

“Blaier proves a true anthropological sense in capturing an entire slum micro-society, with varied characters, from the grocery store manager – Gheorghe Dinică playing his usual role of sentimental scoundrel – to the flirtatious teacher, the restless taxi driver, the absent-minded groom and last but not least, the voluptuous matron, a formidable Draga Olteanu-Matei Olteanu in one of the most successful performances in Romanian cinema. The “midwife” Titina is a woman between two ages who monopolizes the stage regardless of the situation, slightly mischievous, manipulative, with a facade of bigotry, juggling with rhetorical dexterity between different religious maxims and invocations of Orthodox saints, cynical, but also possessing a certain worldly realism.” – Bogdan Jitea, iiccmer.ro

“The action in “Postcards with Wildflowers” is built as a pivot around Laura’s death, which is placed, in fact, right in the middle of the movie. The first part focuses on Irina’s premonitory anxiety against the backdrop of a jubilant day. The second part still fixates on Irina; only this time, as a moral, self-flagellating being, in contrast to the rest, who either suspects nothing or tries to hide the truth at all costs.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“The wedding unfolding in parallel with Laura’s death is a device akin to the masking of rifle noises under fireworks.The suspense is heightened by the interweaving of the two plans, in which Irina’s boyfriend Victor actively participates. With the death, Laura’s body becomes the concrete matter of the tragic, but also of the imminent danger of the consequences that will befall the culprits. It’s just that the investigative part, which becomes more and more pressing towards the end of the film, is not fulfilled. A slice in the life of a small community and a newcomer who crosses their space ends in a discordant register.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• Before Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” became a hit and won an award at Cannes, Andrei Blaier made “Postcards with Wild Flowers”, both of which were similarly about the tragedies caused by clandestine abortions that proliferated after the entry into force of Decree no. 770 of October 1, 1966, which banned, with a few exceptions, the termination of pregnancies.
• In order to get past the censorship barriers, writer and director Andrei Blaier was forced to give the movie a clear ideological message along the anti-abortion lines of the time, and to thicken the negative characters to the point of ridiculousness.
• Although she was already on her eighth movie, audiences got to know better Carmen Galin through her role as Laura.
• The movie was seen by 2.1 million viewers in Romania.

LINES:

• “I’m dying to travel. Sending postcards from everywhere. (…) Sometimes I get home late and then, when I get them, it’s great!” – Laura (Carmen Galin)
• “Don’t be so inquisitive, you’ll never get married.” – Laura (Carmen Galin)
• “My money doesn’t kick me out either.” – Taxi driver (Constantin Florescu)
• “Don’t ask too many questions, you get old quickly.” – Midwife Titina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “You’ll do anything to get money.” – Irina (Elena Albu)
• “When it gets worse, let it be like now!” – midwife Titina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “I’m not going to spend the night at weddings with all the teachers! Many speeches and some food!” – Marin (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “It’s what a man promises when he’s a real man.” – Marin (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “Laura won’t abort the baby. (…) Say hello to your wife and good night!” – Irina (Elena Albu)
• “Damn those punks! They didn’t need kids!” – midwife Titina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “They’re all one of a kind!” – midwife Titina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “You put too much, you bitch. You put the whole bottle.” – midwife Titina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “I’m going to put the noose around my neck.” – Niculina (Eliza Petrăchescu)
• “Why do you let her walk alone on the street at this hour without ID? And without a purpose in life or… something?” – The Policeman (Dumitru Chesa)
• “We’re not going to have a policeman for every young woman, to drive her home at night!” – The Policeman (Dumitru Chesa)

ARTICLES:

• Andrei Blaier – Postcards with flowers… immortal flowers – cinemagia.ro
• Postcards with Wild Flowers (1975) – iiccmer .co.uk
• Postcards with Wild Flowers – istoriafilmului.ro
• Postcards with Wild Flowers, duminică seara la TVR2 – tvr.ro
• Postcards with Wild Flowers by Andrei Blaier at the first Cineclub FILM of the year – hotnews.ro
• The communist movie that indirectly blamed the system for the deaths of women forced to have abortions – adevarul.ro
• Postcards with Wild Flowers or abortion in communist Romania – evenimentulistoric.ro

This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.

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